Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Free will (9)

more Fathers on Free will

Barnabas (AD100)

"The
Lord will judge the world without respect of persons. Each will
receive as he has done: if he is righteous, his righteousness will
precede him; if he is wicked, the reward of wickedness is before him.
Take heed, lest resting at our ease, as those who are the called [of
God], we should fall asleep in our sins, and the wicked prince,
acquiring power over us, should thrust us away from the kingdom of the
Lord. And all the more attend to this, my brethren, when ye reflect and
behold, that after so great signs and wonders were wrought in Israel,
they were thus [at length] abandoned. Let us beware lest we be found
[fulfilling that saying], as it is written, “Many are called, but few
are chosen.” (Epistle of Barnabas, IV)

Tatian (AD110-172)

"Why
are you fated to grasp at things often, and often to die? Die to the
world, repudiating the madness that is in it. Live to God, and by
apprehending Him lay aside your old nature. We were not created to die,
but we die by our own fault. Our free-will has destroyed us; we who
were free have become slaves; we have been sold through sin. Nothing
evil has been created by God; we Ourselves have manifested wickedness;
but we, who have manifested it, are able again to reject it." (Tatian, Address to the Greeks, XI)